


Hypnoctober Day 21

by birdginia



Series: Hypnoctober 2018 [21]
Category: Fate/Zero, Fate/stay night & Related Fandoms
Genre: Branding, Canon-Typical Sculpture, Consensual Mind Control, Fluff, M/M, Mind Control
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-10
Updated: 2018-11-10
Packaged: 2019-08-21 10:57:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16575128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/birdginia/pseuds/birdginia
Summary: (prompt - branding)"This is my family's seal," Caster says, and holds it out for Ryuunosuke to see. Sure enough, there's a carved crest pattern of some sort marked out on the flat part of the ring. It must be one of those old stamps for sealing letters with wax. “The coat of arms of the House of Montmorency-Laval. If this is something you wish to have on your body... I'd gladly offer it for that purpose."Ryuunosuke feels something sting at the backs of his eyes. "It's perfect."





	Hypnoctober Day 21

"I want something physical," Ryuunosuke says. "I know we have like, a contract. But I want something tangible, to prove our connection!"

"Are the Command Seals not sufficient, Ryuunosuke?" Caster asks, not looking up from his book. Ryuunosuke doesn't mind—there’s a calm atmosphere at the moment, Caster doing some kind of research while Ryuunosuke works on his art. They'd been peacefully existing next to each other for a while, before Ryuunosuke brought this up.

He shakes his head. "I like them, but they're magic, aren't they? What if they disappear by magic, too?" He taps his scalpel thoughtfully against an exposed shoulder bone. "Maybe I could get it tattooed? Wait, no..." He traces the dull side of the scalpel down the corpse's jaw, carefully considering the line before making a mark. "I want something original, something I picked out for myself."

He looks up and down the chest of his current canvas, like he can find inspiration for his next project from the current one. Like, he’s pretty proud of this one—the intricate linework around the breasts might be his best yet—but he's not sure how well the medium would work on his own body.

"Yeah, scars are out." He makes that cut on the jaw, and grins as the teeth are exposed in just the shape he imagined. Sculpture can be so rewarding.

It's not until he goes to relight the torches keeping part of the workshop lit that the idea comes to him.

"A burn!" he shouts, flinging his arms out in triumph—and, whoops, fucking up his canvas in the process, but he can't bring himself to care right now. "Something that will leave a permanent mark, but looks totally different from a scar! What do you think?"

Caster, weirdly, frowns.

"What's wrong? You don't like it?"

"Is it not too much like the mark of a criminal? Even of livestock? A brand would hardly complement someone of your status."

Ryuunosuke thinks for a while. If Caster doesn't like it, then maybe he should reconsider...

But no. "It's not the same," he says, stepping over so he's nearly at eye level, with Caster still sitting down. "If someone gave me a mark I didn't ask for, it would be like that. It'd be humiliating! _But_ ,” he points, nearly tapping Caster on the nose. "If _you_ gave me a mark, it would really mean something. Something that means I'm yours, and you're mine. Kind of like a wedding ring!" He stops himself, looks away sheepishly. “...Or, ah, something like that."

Caster closes his book, sets it down, and reaches into the seemingly infinite space in his sleeves for a moment, before pulling something out. "A wedding ring, hm..."

It's definitely some kind of ring. Not one of the ones Caster usually wears, though. This one's thicker, burnished gold, with something flat set into it.

"This is my family's seal," Caster says, and holds it out for Ryuunosuke to see. Sure enough, there's a carved crest pattern of some sort marked out on the flat part of the ring. It must be one of those old stamps for sealing letters with wax. “The coat of arms of the House of Montmorency-Laval. If this is something you wish to have on your body... I'd gladly offer it for that purpose."

Ryuunosuke feels something sting at the backs of his eyes. "It's perfect."

-

Unfortunately, there’s one thing standing in the way of this plan, and that’s Ryuunosuke's pain tolerance. That is to say, he doesn’t have much of one. It's unbecoming of a serial killer, even a hobbyist, but there's not much he can do about it now.

Anesthetic is out of the question. Of course he wants to _feel_ It, that moment of perfect connection. He just doesn't want to feel it... as much. It's complicated.

Fortunately, Caster really and truly is a godsend.

Ryuunosuke is sitting in one of the chairs he usually keeps his new canvases in, palms up and resting on the chair’s arms. He wants it on his forearm--not the wrist, where it's easy to spot, but still somewhere he can look at whenever he wants. The left arm, he decides. Then both of them can be marked there.

Caster places a thumb on Ryuunosuke's forehead, closes his eyes, and mutters a few strange words that Ryuunosuke can't make out. When he moves his hand away, Ryuunosuke feels like something’s just hit him in the back of the head, sending waves of dizziness through him for a few moments before it settles down into a strange, but not unpleasant, floating sensation.

"How do you feel?" Caster asks, concern in his wide eyes.

"Drunk," Ryuunosuke says, letting his head fall back and then roll forward lazily. "But not really? Kinda like going to the dentist, but nice."

Caster nods. "You'll be able to feel and comprehend the sensation, but your mind is one degree removed from it. You shouldn't flinch or panic when I..." He raises his hand, and a blue glow starts to envelop the signet ring on his middle finger. 

Ryuunosuke grins, stretches his arm out a little, eager to get what he wants, and Caster smiles back.

It still hurts. A lot. But something about the pain feels _right_ , like it's meant for him, so instead of screaming like his body wants to, he lets out a laugh of pure elation. His arm stays steady, even after wave after wave of pain, and it almost feels wrong when Caster moves the ring off of his skin.

He watches his skin smoke and sizzle, and it really is gorgeous, even if the fine details of the seal aren’t clear yet. It hurts more just from looking at it, but it’s still more like he’s watching it happen to someone else, so he can still let it wash over him without curling in on himself. 

Caster bends over his arm to inspect his work, and Ryuunosuke looks at him hazily. He feels sublime, truly connected to this beautiful creature he’s summoned, and he can’t help but lean up and kiss Caster softly on the cheek.

Caster smiles and takes hold of his hand, sending shots of pain through his arm that feel like electricity arcing from his own body to Caster’s, one more point of connection between them.

“Do you like it?” Caster asks, almost shyly. Ryuunosuke reaches for his other hand.

“Even more than God loves us.”

**Author's Note:**

> I tried to make the details of the mark really vague bc I didn't want to be historically inaccurate, but my beautiful beta went and looked up the shit I couldn't find so just for the record, [this](http://wappenwiki.org/index.php/File:Montmorency-Laval-Chalouyau.svg) was the coat of arms of the house of montmorency-laval, chalouyau branch, barons de rais, [this](http://wappenwiki.org/index.php/File:Gilles_de_Montmorency-Laval_1429.svg) was gilles' personal coat of arms after he was consecrated a marshal of france in 1429, and [this](http://jean-claude.colrat.pagesperso-orange.fr/armoiries/rais01.jpg)..........was his crest, which, holy shit.
> 
> my twitter is over at [@Slotheyyyyy](https://twitter.com/Slotheyyyyy). check out my very important thoughts and opinions on fucking, and @ me with any of yours!


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